View Full Version : Where do you stay in Kent, CT?
Blissful
12-04-2006, 21:03
Just curious where hikers stay in Kent? Doesn't seem like a lot of options, money wise. And it appears to be a main maildrop / resupply point.
Lone Wolf
12-04-2006, 21:07
Last time I was there I stealthed in the treeline behind town hall.
SalParadise
12-04-2006, 21:10
the shelter is so close to town everyone just stays there.
I slept in a lawn near the outfitters, but we got permission.
If I remember right, the only type of motel is a pretty high-end one.
Sleepy the Arab
12-04-2006, 21:28
Get in, get out. There ain't much in Kent worth hanging around for.
Coffee and baquettes in the AM 'eh Wolf!
tiamalle
12-05-2006, 00:25
Just curious where hikers stay in Kent? Doesn't seem like a lot of options, money wise. And it appears to be a main maildrop / resupply point.http://appalachiantrailservices.com/index.php?env=-inlink/index:m1518-1-1-1-s&reset=1
Agree with Sleepy. Plan your day so you can enjoy a couple hours of R and R and move on. There is a shelter right on the Housatonic that is about 7 miles north of town, and made for a nice destination.
I agree. For Kent KT get in and get out. You only need a couple hours to by groceries, get mail, visit outfitter etc. Everything in town is quaint and expensive, lodging especially. The town is only 0.5 miles from the trail so it is easily walkeable. Get in before 11 am be out by 2 pmish you'll have time for errands and to get to next shelter afterwards.
DavidNH
Kevin A. Boyce
12-05-2006, 10:38
Between the Mt Algo Shelter, the Stewart Hollow Brook lean-to and a few decent, although buggy camping areas, there really is no need to stay at one of the B&B's or inns in Kent, unless you want electricity, plumbing and a real bed. If you need those, honestly your options are few and $$$$.
I would just go in and spend a few hours and be on your way, Kent is one of those places that will drain your funds very quickly.
I will recommend stopping in for some ice cream though... It is made fairly locally, and the owner is very pro hiker... Last summer when I stopped in, he was in the process of getting a tent for some hikers to borrow for the night, and was setting them up with a place to set it up... Very cool.
Lone Wolf
12-05-2006, 10:42
Coffee and baquettes in the AM 'eh Wolf!
Yup. Fond memories. Fresh baquettes, a stick of butter, hot coffee streetside and many beers at the bar.
astrogirl
12-05-2006, 10:59
Stay at Mt. Algo shelter. Outfitter has a solar shower, or used to anyway.
I have fond recollections of beer and salad at the bar near the laundromat.
Jack Tarlin
12-05-2006, 19:23
Blissful:
The people above have have it right....it's a good place to get food or mail as it's so close to town, and there are restaurants and an Outfitter, but it's a lousy place to overnight unless you want to spend a good deal of money.
I think it's best to plan on staying at Mt. Algo shelter, then go into town in the morning, do what you gotta do, and get OUT. Connecticut is an expensive place to pay for lodging, but happily you won't be there very long.
Lone Wolf
12-06-2006, 05:01
As you head out of town back to the trail, just over the bridge and before the school athletic field on your right, there's a hill with a blue-blazed trail. Hike up about 50 yds +/- to a fairly flat spot. I've camped here several times.
what a pleasant little town!locals little rowdy but heck thats life.use to have a nice coffee shop, nice people I use to hang out their alot,best bet is to hit the blue blaze like LW wolf said or hike up to mt algo again or just walk down the river road a ways,I do believe its a walk though.ky
refreeman
12-06-2006, 09:26
Kent Pizza Garden
& Pasta Grill
17 Railroad Square
Kent, CT 06757
(860) 927.3733
This is my Favorite place to eat on the CT section on the AT for excellent food and good price.
HappyGoLucky
02-13-2007, 05:20
I'm pretty sure in 2006 there was a church that let hikers tent outside or sleep under an overhang when someone is around (which was usually but not always). Don't think too many people took up on it though.
Ron/LW/HGL
hopefulhiker
02-13-2007, 08:57
I slept in someone's back yard right next to the cemetary. I snuck into the church to use the bathroom..
Never felt so homeless.....
Jack Tarlin
02-13-2007, 15:05
Did you have permission to sleep in their yard, Hopeful?
And whether you did or not, "sneaking in" to churches or any other building to use any of their facilities, without an invitation, and without asking, is a pretty thoughtless thing to do. At least it is if you have any consideration for the hikers that are coming after you, and how they'll be viewed and treated in small Trail Towns.
It is actions like this that make homeowners, other residents, and entire towns unfriendly to hikers.
If you felt like a homeless bum, Hopeful, has it occurred to you that this is because it is exactly how you were behaving?
It is also how you would have been perceived, had you been caught in someone's yard, or the cemetery, or in the church.
If places like Kent are perceived by some to be unfriendly to hikers, all too often, there are good reasons for this.
As you head out of town back to the trail, just over the bridge and before the school athletic field on your right, there's a hill with a blue-blazed trail. Hike up about 50 yds +/- to a fairly flat spot. I've camped here several times.
Me too:D Or, you can always pass out right behind the post office after a night of livin' it up at the italian restaurant. However, you might wake up sleeping half way out of your sleeping bag.;)
Lone Wolf
02-13-2007, 16:45
Me too:D Or, you can always pass out right behind the post office after a night of livin' it up at the italian restaurant. However, you might wake up sleeping half way out of your sleeping bag.;)
That was the town hall.:cool:
That was the town hall.:cool:
Oh yeah. Whoops!:rolleyes:
HappyGoLucky
02-13-2007, 21:14
I'm pretty sure in 2006 there was a church that let hikers tent outside or sleep under an overhang when someone is around (which was usually but not always). Don't think too many people took up on it though.
It's St Andrews Episcopal Church - don't know if they're doing this for 2007, check the Handbook or Companion. I know it was unavailable the day I passed thru in 2006 (forget if caretaker was out or if there was a function that night), so you can't count 100% on it and do need to get permission first.
Ron/LW/HGL
:D any were i hang my hammock:cool: neo
joeframbach
07-25-2008, 15:45
I called the Outfitter for the Church's number. Then called the church and asked if I could sleep in the lawn. Had a pretty good night there, and ended up forgetting a tent stake in their lawn. Definitely recommended.
Unless money is no object or you got some good friends who live there don't plan to stay in Kent. Get in, resupply at grocery store, and hike out. The town is only 0.5 miles off the trail.
DavidNH
Kent. CT is a crappy trail town. Everyone was extremely rude to me. If you can, plan your resupply so you don't stop in Kent, or stay at the shelter just out of town and do an "in and out" operation.
Kirby
Kent. CT is a crappy trail town. Everyone was extremely rude to me. If you can, plan your resupply so you don't stop in Kent, or stay at the shelter just out of town and do an "in and out" operation.
Kirby
Well, if you weren't moving so darn fast, I would have done ya a kindness in Kent.
Kent. CT is a crappy trail town. Everyone was extremely rude to me. If you can, plan your resupply so you don't stop in Kent, or stay at the shelter just out of town and do an "in and out" operation.
Gee, that's surprising to hear, Kirby. I admit it's no Duncannon or Port Clinton (it's Connecticut, after all) but I had a nice stay there. No rudeness that I can recall. No laundromat either, for that matter.
sofaking
07-26-2008, 12:46
Gee, that's surprising to hear, Kirby. I admit it's no Duncannon or Port Clinton (it's Connecticut, after all) but I had a nice stay there. No rudeness that I can recall. No laundromat either, for that matter.
there is a laundromat across from the post office...kent was okay, but the trail is so close there is no need to stay...LW's stealth site behind the town hall was used a few times when i was there...
Kent Pizza Garden let me and buds stay in the grass.
Also, have stayed twice in a decent stealth spot across the street from the outfitter. If you are at the recently moved (and might I add poorly stocked and outageously expensive outfitter) just cross back over the main drag and walk down the road about 50 yds. There will be a big field on your right (across the street from where the old outfitter's was) where a large industrial looking business is. Walk the path towards the building. As you make it near the building you can see a playground with tennis courts straight ahead. The area beyond those courts is a great place. There is a pavilion, plenty of grass and for the most part you are hedged in. I imagine the local LEO makes a few trips up there for partiers or to check things out, so I'd keep it clean, but this is now where I stay when in Kent.
Nearly Normal
07-26-2008, 19:34
Sounds like a hostel is needed.
Blissful
07-26-2008, 21:15
I disliked the outfitter when I was there. No canisters at all (in fact, one of the salegirls didn't even know what it was). Just some yuppy clothes and shoes (but we did find trail runners for my hubby).
We stayed with friends near Kent for the 4th, so we were happy. Esp since it rained all day long.
Good place for a mail drop.
Lone Wolf
07-26-2008, 21:29
I disliked the outfitter when I was there. No canisters at all (in fact, one of the salegirls didn't even know what it was). Just some yuppy clothes and shoes (but we did find trail runners for my hubby).
We stayed with friends near Kent for the 4th, so we were happy. Esp since it rained all day long.
Good place for a mail drop.
towns are towns. they cater to the folks that go there daily. hikers amount to noyhing really. hikers need to fend for themselves
More bikers than hikers visit Kent. Sunday is hog heaven.
Footslogger
07-26-2008, 23:13
If memory serves me correctly, the laundramat over by the post office is now closed.
Things change with time but my memory of Kent is good. A bunch of us went in together on a room at a B & B. Had a good dinner and the outfitter was very hospitable. I had lost a tip off of one my trekking poles. It was a brand he didn't carry but he took the time and got it put back together.
'Slogger
sofaking
07-27-2008, 09:51
the laundromat was open just a couple of weeks ago...no more hiker 'showers' in the restroom, apparently some of the early nobo's screwed that up.
Lone Wolf
07-27-2008, 09:59
apparently some of the early nobo's screwed that up.
...as always
Trillium
07-27-2008, 14:28
I read Alpine Strider's last trail journal entry http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=243649 this morning and it speaks directly to this issue:
Kent, Connecticut.
Some unforeseen gear-changes brought me into Kent, CT, two days ago. Actually, I wanted to hike by since this town doesn't have the best reputation among hikers. Since I needed to see the outfitter in town, though, I had to hike in. And I am glad I did. Because it helped me see the things from both sides.
Yes, all the rumors about this place are true - this town is not at all very hikerfriendly, but I think that there is a very good reason, why.
Kent is a very striking and sad example for what can happen if previous hiker-conduct in town was so apalling to townpeople that they simply don't want to put up with such behaviour any more. And frankly, one really can not blame these people.
I talked to the owners the laundromat, for instance, and learned how they kept cleaning up behing hikers who used their laudry-washroon as a shower replacement, leaving all kinds of hairs in the sink, waterpuddles on the floor and pineneedles, dirt, cluttered debris from their packs on the tables where clients wanted to fold freshly washed laundry. It is no wonder that these people are already tense when they just spot a hiker entering their business with a pack on the back. They are genuinely fed up with having to clean up after everybody and put a sign in the washroom which very clearly expresses how they feel about the situation.
The Church of Saint Andrews used to allow hikers to camp out on the churchlawn. Not so anymore - not today, not tomorrow , nevermore anymore - which a framed little note next to the doorbell at the refectorium's entrance informs the AT hiker. I just can guess what they must have found on that lawn after overnight campers left town. And I can understand them. Even though this put me in a very tough situation, since even the Fife'n'Drum inn had had it's restday, I could not check in there either, nobody was there - in short: I spent some horrible night stealthcamping somewhere behind the parkinglot of the townhall, close to some mosquitoinfested underbrush which was sluginfested in the morning, leaving several of them squished on my sleepingbag and elsewhere...
But I still can fully understand these people. Having done an entire thruhike last year, and now doing another one, I really can say that I have seen it all. Hanover, NH. Until last year, the Dartmouth Outing Club allowed hikers to camp out next to the soccerfield, at the AT trailhead north. This spot is conveniently close to the COOP grocerstore, nobody tampered with your stuff while you were out doing your town-chores - it was heaven to pitch your tent and stay in that pretty Collegetown for free. Already last year I collected trash from previous hikers to clean that place up. This year, camping out there is no longer permitted. I still camped out there, though, because I only read it way into Vermont, that this was not any longer allowed. But again, I picked up hiker-typical trash like trailmixbar-wrappers, Gatorade bottles, Ramennoodle-wrappers, CrystalClear-wrappers. What can I say - you know your folks. We all eat the same stuff, and we know where trash like that comes from.
Hikerhostels. The bathrooms in particular. Do I have to describe the yucky amount of filth, of bodyhairs in showertubs, bathtubs, and the dirt on and in toiletbowls - only because some people never ever seem to clean up after themselves? These places could all look way cleaner if everybody just would look a little bit to it. Who is supposed to clean up after such people?
Frankly, it is a wonder to me that not way more townpeople react this rigidly towards hikers as what comes like a cold shower right into your face in Kent, CT.
And another sad thing is this: it only needs some badbehaving hikers to spoil it for everybody else who comes after them. In that sense: Think about Kent, when you thruhike on the A.T. - Kent could be everywhere...
wystiria
02-24-2009, 15:32
ahhh Kent - I frequently think if I won the lottery I would start a hostel up there. just to buy the property would cost a pretty penny!! And I am CT native so i know my property values.
As a hiker, I would get in and then get out - unless you are fortunate enough to meet a local (hint every spring me and my DH hike SOBO south of CT to meet thrus) who will take you in!
Frick Frack
02-24-2009, 15:50
I disliked the outfitter when I was there. No canisters at all (in fact, one of the salegirls didn't even know what it was). Just some yuppy clothes and shoes (but we did find trail runners for my hubby).
We stayed with friends near Kent for the 4th, so we were happy. Esp since it rained all day long.
Good place for a mail drop.
yeah, that outfitters was THE WORST! They did not even have trail maps...we got them from the bookstore (which I highly recommend). We ate dinner and bought a 3.0L of wine and some Dale's Pale for the troops at Mt. Algo and went there for the night.